Day 139
7 This course has come from him because his words have reached you in a language you can love and understand. Are other teachers possible, to lead the way to those who speak in different tongues and appeal to different symbols? Certainly there are. Would God leave anyone without a very present help in time of trouble; a savior who can symbolize Himself? Yet do we need a many-faceted curriculum, not because of content differences, but because symbols must shift and change to suit the need. Jesus has come to answer yours. In him you find God’s Answer. Do you, then, teach with him, for he is with you; he is always here.
It only makes sense that there would be other forms of the same course. Not everyone is going to be attracted to this format. It is very western, very cerebral, which is funny since it leads us to let go of thinking. I love A Course in Miracles. I love it more and more as I grow into it. But I also find other formats helpful. I study The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament and sometimes it feels like a relief to read it after a particularly convoluted passage from the Course because NTI is more simply written.
I enjoy The Teachings of Inner Ramana, a westernized eastern teaching. Very deep teachings expressed in a minimum of words. Byron Katie’s The Work has powerful spiritual principles expressed in such a way that anyone of any religion or no religion can use it to become more realized. I enjoyed The Way of Mastery very much and it is like the Course, but has an entirely different tone.
The Holy Spirit has brought me to a number of different books and teachers, and sometimes these teachings seem to be a permanent part of my path and sometimes there seemed to be only an idea that He wanted me to see. I always ask Him to help me integrate what I am reading, to see and accept what it is in the teaching He would have me know.
Words can get in the way if I take them too literally. I hold the meanings lightly, remembering what the Course says about words. It says they are but symbols of symbols and thus twice removed from reality. It also reminds us that words are made by us to keep us separated. We shouldn’t be surprised then, that even in the Course community there can be debate and argument about the meaning of words in A Course in Miracles. This is, after all, the reason we made words, to keep us separate. And this is the reason I’m not exact in my use of terms.
I also think it is the reason I can enjoy so many forms of teaching without becoming confused. I had to laugh yesterday as I realized that some of the ideas from my religious background that I learned to dislike and even found offensive, I now see as true. The less attention I pay to differences, the more unified everything appears to me.
While I can find truth in many places, my heart seeks its answers from Jesus. I feel an affinity for his teachings, and love and gratitude for what he has done for us and continues to do. I feel gratitude that I have a part in his plan of Atonement, and that I feel his presence and his guidance as I do my part.
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